Luminous device for dial telephones



July 5, 1932. 0RD 1,866,157

LUHINOUS DEVICE FOR DIAL TELEPHONES Filed May 9. 1931 INVENTOR Clinton E.F0rd.

' B'Y ms ATI'ORNEY CLINTON EFORD, OF WINS'IED, CONNECTICUT Luminous nnvrcn roa nun rnnnrnonns Application illed'llay 9, 1931. Serial No. 538,134.

7 construction, inexpensive to manufacture, easy to install and manipulate, compact, or-

namental appearance, and very eflicient and durable in use.

With these and other objects in view there has been illustrated on the accompanying drawing one form in which the invention may be conveniently embodied in practice.

In the drawing: Fig. 1 represents a side elevation of the base of an automatic dial telephone embody- 5 mg the invention, the finger wheel being shown partly in section. Fig. 2 is a fragmentary plan view of the same. i

Fig. 3 is a bottom view-of the improved 3 finger wheel.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view of the-finger wheel, taken along the line 44. of Fig. 2, looking in the direction of the arrows.

Referring now to the drawing in which like reference numerals denote corresponding parts'throughout the several views, the. numeral 10 indicates a base of an automatic dial telephone having a soft feltv pad 11 for protecting the surface. upon which the tele-' phone is placed from injury as by scratching.

Extending upwardly in an inclined direction .from the telephone base 10 is a dial housing 12 of standard construction having a finger.

wheel 13 pivotally mounted thereon.

As herein disclosed, the finger wheel 13 is provided near its center with the usual pierced openings 14, 15 and 16, by means-of which it may be attached to the rotary spring located within the dialhousing 12. The finger wheel 13 is also provided with a plurality of circular finger apertures 17ten in this instance-arranged concentrically around the axis of a central annular bezel ring 18. Located on said ring 18 is a telephone number plate '19 having a' call number 20 printed thereon, in this instance the number being 4-6012.

As is usual with automatic dial telephone instruments of this type,-provision is made no of a curved inwardly-extending finger stop 21 having a substantially vertical arm 21a for rigidly connecting said stop 21 to the dial housing 12. The finger wheel 13 is provided at its periphery with a downwardly-extending curved flange 22 for a purpose to be hereinafter described.

In order to illuminate an annular dial 23 containing the usuai indicia 23a, in this 1nstance, the digits 1 o 0 inclusive, a coating 7 24 of luminous material, such as radium luminous paint, is appliedto the under surface of said finger wheel 13 for about five-sixths of its circumference. The luminous coating 24 is indicated by stippling in'Fig. 8 and cov- 7 ers the entire area of the underside of the plate 13 outside of the section 28 bounded by a circular line 25 and a pair of radial lines 26 and 27.

The finger wheel flange 22 is also preferably coated on its inner surface with radium luminous paint in order to increase the amount of light radiated upon the dial for enhancing the visibility thereof.- It will be understood that the finger wheel flange 22 also serves to prevent the lateral escape of radiated light from the base of thefinger wheel 13 and protects the luminous under surface from being scratched or otherwise injured 'by small implements, such as pencils. pens, etc., which might otherwise be inserted from the outside of the finger wheel.

Operation other source of illumination.

One advantage of the present invention is that the luminous under surface of the dial improvement over the ormer t is positively protected from injury by reason of its inaccessibility to gencils or other 1mlements, generally use nger wheel. v

This invention com rises a considerable eofinstrument having the dial itself coate with luminous material, and where it was possible to scratchthe surface of said luminous-material by the implement used for dialing the finger wheel.

- ill While there has been disclomd in this specification one form in which the invention may be embodied, it is to beunderstood'. that this form is shown for the purpose of illustration only, and that the invention is not to be limited to the specific disclosure but may be modified and embodied in various other forms without departin from its spirit. In. short, the invention inc udesvall the modifications and embodiments coming within the scope of the following claims.

Having thus fully described the invention, what is claimed as new and for which it is desired to secure Letters Patent, is:

1. In a dial telephone, a dial, an apertured" finger wheel spaced from said dial and mounted to rotate with respect thereto, said finger wheel having its surface next to said dial coated with self-luminous material for rendering said dial visible in darkness.

2, In a dial telephone, a dial, 'a rotary finger wheel having a downturned flange, the inner surface of said wheel and flange being coated with luminous material.

In testimony whereof, I have afiixed my signature tothis specification.

' CLINTON E. FORD.

for operating the v 

